UI – Bryan Zug’s Flat Hatter Collaborativehttp://zug.flathatter.com
Bryan Zug's blog on interactive development and the art of thriving in a world of change.Tue, 14 Feb 2017 17:22:45 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.3Blasting the Myth of the Fold – Boxes and Arrows: The design behind the designhttp://zug.flathatter.com/blasting-the-myth-of-the-fold-boxes-and-arrows-the-design-behind-the-design/
http://zug.flathatter.com/blasting-the-myth-of-the-fold-boxes-and-arrows-the-design-behind-the-design/#respondThu, 10 Apr 2008 16:41:38 +0000http://zug.flathatter.com/blasting-the-myth-of-the-fold-boxes-and-arrows-the-design-behind-the-design/Recommended Reading: Interesting article about “The Myth of the Fold” pointed out by Terry Heaton on the Gnomedex mailing list.

Holding on to this disbelief – this myth that users won’t scroll to see anything below the fold – is doing everyone a great disservice, most of all our users.

]]>http://zug.flathatter.com/blasting-the-myth-of-the-fold-boxes-and-arrows-the-design-behind-the-design/feed/0Search Boxes are Big In Japanhttp://zug.flathatter.com/search-boxes-are-big-in-japan/
Wed, 26 Mar 2008 15:44:32 +0000http://zug.flathatter.com/search-boxes-are-big-in-japan/Nice post from Cabel Sasser on how Japanese ads are dropping URL’s in advertisements in favor of search boxes with keywords.

Lots of back and forth in the comments on how regular folks don’t use the address bar like they’re “supposed” to — money quote from the comments —

I don’t think us web geeks have any idea of the heinous crimes that the average user is committing out there.

]]>10 Best Intranets of 2008http://zug.flathatter.com/10-best-intranets-of-2008/
http://zug.flathatter.com/10-best-intranets-of-2008/#respondThu, 10 Jan 2008 16:44:14 +0000http://zug.flathatter.com/10-best-intranets-of-2008/Had coffee with Drupal aficionado Gregory Heller over at Top Pot in downtown Seattle on Tuesday and he pointed me to Jakob Neilson’s new article on the 10 Best Intranets of 2008.

Design seemed to figure directly into business results. Here’s a short money quote —

The productivity gains from polishing the user experience are well worth the cost of going beyond the first design that comes to mind.

]]>http://zug.flathatter.com/10-best-intranets-of-2008/feed/0My Chumby Just Arrivedhttp://zug.flathatter.com/my-chumby-just-arrived/
http://zug.flathatter.com/my-chumby-just-arrived/#respondTue, 08 Jan 2008 04:37:35 +0000http://zug.flathatter.com/my-chumby-just-arrived/My Chumby just arrived — here it is (except mine is black) — and yes, this is a realtime reflection of what it is showing —

Usually we are trying to explain to business colleagues or friends or family or members of our church that, yes, indeed — online community is a part of real community and not the equivalent of social cheese-whiz that some describe it to be.

But, yeah — as I’m working to explain it I often see eyes begin to glaze over — and I can tell that folks are either not buying it or I’m not communicating very well.

Which leaves me — searching for ways to compellingly relate how online community has become real community for us — looking for the stories and patterns that engage both the emotion and the intellect.

…all our globally-connecting-social-networking tools are making face-to-face more, not less desirable. Thanks to the tools y’all are building, we now have more far-flung friends–including people we’ve never met f2f–than ever before. We now have more people we want to connect with in the human world, often after years of electronic-only contact.

Did I mention that my mom who just got her first computer for Christmas is now IM’ing all the time — the world really is getting flat.

]]>http://zug.flathatter.com/creating-passionate-users-face-to-face-trumps-twitter-blogs-podcasts-video/feed/0Whitespace: 34% More Retention in Half the Timehttp://zug.flathatter.com/whitespace-34-more-retention-in-half-the-time/
http://zug.flathatter.com/whitespace-34-more-retention-in-half-the-time/#respondWed, 14 Mar 2007 15:37:24 +0000http://elearningskinny.com/whitespace-34-more-retention-in-half-the-time/Cool article this AM from the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review. It’s a review of an eyetracking research study called “Eyetracking points the way to effective news article design“.

Best quote —

“What if you could engage users in a story for about half the time, yet have them remember about 34 percent more of the content?”

Visit the article for cool screenshots of the noted before and after design. Main takeaways are that retention increased with a redesign that emphasized —

Increased white space

Concise main idea

Removal of unnecessary images

Shortened lines of text

An added graphic for each restaurant ranking

]]>http://zug.flathatter.com/whitespace-34-more-retention-in-half-the-time/feed/0Current style in web designhttp://zug.flathatter.com/current-style-in-web-design/
http://zug.flathatter.com/current-style-in-web-design/#commentsThu, 17 Aug 2006 14:08:12 +0000http://elearningskinny.com/current-style-in-web-design/Web Design from Scratch has a nice rundown of current wed design trends and why they are effective. Nice roundup of examples.

I’m glad to say that web design in 2006 is better than ever. And it’s not just because there are more web sites out there, so more good stuff to look at. There’s still an awful lot of crud too. I just think that more web designers know more about how to design than ever before.

The examples below (which I’ll roll over time) show excellent modern graphic design technique. They all look good, and are clear and easy to use.

]]>http://zug.flathatter.com/current-style-in-web-design/feed/1Teens self organize a learning experience in Second Lifehttp://zug.flathatter.com/teens-self-organize-a-learning-experience-in-second-life/
http://zug.flathatter.com/teens-self-organize-a-learning-experience-in-second-life/#respondWed, 09 Aug 2006 14:21:28 +0000http://elearningskinny.com/teens-self-organize-a-learning-experience-in-second-life/Just heard about via the Second Life Education Mailing List –– teens have self organized a learning experience on creating awareness about Child Sex Trafficking. Happened in an area of second life called the Teen Grid.

Looks like they created a maze that users would move through, digest facts, answer questions in exchange for Second Life stuff, and were given the opportunity to donate Second Life dollars at the end.

Pretty inventive and striking in it’s informality and self organization.

The thing I found interesting about this was how, by trying to address teenagers from a route which many are more comfortable in, and spend quite a bit of time in, they’re also managing to educate them, quite willingly in most places. As I went round the maze I saw many people stopping at each of the case studies and fact cards and reading them.

On the self organizing nature of it ––

Also evident throughout second life are members educating themselves or each other. For example, a lot of items are created by the members, who have had to learn how to build them, then learn programming for more interactive elements. Many of the kids on Teen grid didn’t know how to programme when they first arrived, however, through tutorials and people willing to help each other, they have learnt enough to complete items they are building, or have learnt where to go to find out more so they can continue to educate themselves.

On the inventiveness of their methodology ––

Raising money was also another part of the event that seemed to be working quite well. It can often be hard to get teenagers to donate money, however, within the virtual world they were a lot more willing. The one donation box had raised about L$6500 within a few hours, which is about $22. Although it does not seem that much, If the same people had passed a donation box in the street for the same cause, would so much have been donated?